The Day David Lynch Didn’t Have to Use His AK

In honor of David Lynch’s release on vinyl of his single “Good Day Today” (and our love of all things Lynch), Noise Narcs is posting on the music of, for, and about David Lynch this week. See our intro post (and claim of Lynch as a Philadelphian) here, and see the rest of the DLW posts here.

The two singles Lynch released on vinyl and CD this week, “Good Day Today” and “I Know” are far, far too good for the work of a director. Woody Allen is certainly a very good clarinetist, but he’s far from the vanguard*: he’s just good for a director. Lynch’s music, however, is just plain good. “I Know” pulls a neat trick: a solid impression of a late-Dylan blues barnstormer played drafting through the Black Lodge.

But “Good Day Today” is the killer track. Fully on-point electro-pop, pulsing and vocoded. Amid menace, a plea for solace. Transcendental meditation meets the machine. And the floating repetition of the synth drives you through it all.

But, wait? What the fuck were those gunshots at the two minute mark? A song. Involving guns. About having a good day. That can mean only one thing. A brilliant director. A great songwriter. An accomplished electropophead. And to beat it all, the man’s an Ice Cube fan?

Mr. Lynch, your surprises never stop: you’re welcome to come back to Philly any time. We’ll promise you a good day: no break-ins, no murders. And to the rest of you, thanks for enduring our Lynch obsession this week. Take a Lynchian hint, and have a good weekend this weekend. And for the heck of it, the one Joanna Newsom song that I can stand also happens to be about a good day. No guns, though.